Table Of Content
And we’ve got plenty of photos to show how much it changed (hence the roundup of before and after pictures below). We also made an interior and exterior floor plan, along with a video house tour that we filmed right before we moved. The kids put their stuffed animal “Burger” here the first night that we put up the tree and I cried real tears.
Young House Love Books
After nearly a year of planning and saving our pennies, we started the reno. Here’s the room after we painted the fireplace, removed a desk and cabinet, and painted the paneling. We also added the eight foot opening to the dining room (more on that project here and here). One of our favorite views in the house is the view from the dining room, past those built-ins, into the office. Here’s what the porch looked like after transplanting all of the house-blocking bushes and painting the front door.
How We Got Our Stained Grout White Again
As for how we like our sofa after owning it for over 3 years, the verdict is that we love it. I haven’t even had to shave any pills or anything with my furniture shaver. It’s holding up extremely well, especially considering that we have two kids who watch TV upside down on it – and had a little pillow crushing dog who took great pleasure in making temporary pillow dents as his part-time job. We found it at Pottery Barn Kids a while back I think. And thanks to three recent changes this room has stepped it up even more in the storage/efficiency category. So let’s get into those three updates, more photos, and a video walk-through (which also gives you a peek at our firepit area as well as our brand new kitchen deck!).
Young House Love Blog Break Featured on NY Times - Richmond Times-Dispatch
Young House Love Blog Break Featured on NY Times.
Posted: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Adding Ikea Floating Shelves In Our Bedroom
Also if you’re in the market for a classic parson’s desk that’ll stand the test of time – this is it. We have loved this desk solidly for a decade and a half and it’s so flexible – it can basically go anywhere (which is why we saved the original legs – who knows where it’ll end up in a few more years!). We thought it was a shame to lose all that valuable storage space, so we sealed the cinder block walls, painted the floor, and brought in some affordable furnishings.
How To Paint Your Garage Door & Utility Box
Here’s the guest room after we upgraded the light fixture, painted the walls and trim, made a window treatment, hung some art, painted the mirror darker, and added some fun accessories (you can find more details on all of that here). One of our favorite neutral wall colors of all time is Edgecomb Gray, which you see in at least four different rooms in our home, so here is a post we wrote all about why we love it so much. You can also find more top greige paint colors loved by experts. And here’s the back hallway after we added board and batten, painted the walls a soft gray color, switched out the light fixture & doorbell, and hung some inexpensive calendar art.
We hung some breezy white curtains in each corner and ripped up that old rug to reveal the concrete flooring underneath- which we painted a rich chocolate color to work with the mocha flooring throughout the rest of the house. Then for fun we added a playful stencil and painted the ceiling blue like the sky. And here it is after we painted the walls a nice sandy tone, went glossy white with the trim (and even added crown molding) to create a space that could easily sleep two people. Making our own art and upholstering the headboard ourselves saved us some serious dough. Oh and outside John had fun wrapping this tree with lights (these are similar warm white exterior lights).
How To Add Easy Board & Batten
It’s interesting for us to muse about what things might change over many many years though. For example, when we’re empty-nesters, will that kids art desk area become something else entirely? Before we go, I made a quick video walk-through while this room was clean (John’s mom and dad drove down for a visit this past week) and I often think a video is worth 10,000 words and photos combined. So to get the best feeling of this space, just press play.
Rug Sizing Tips & Our Favorite “Magic Rug”
It’s short, and there’s no narration, so you can watch it on mute if you’re at work without missing anything. I don’t think we show this angle much either, so here you go. That white console table used to be in our last house’s dining room, and the drawer is full of spare light bulbs and extension cords. You know John requires a special spot for those, right?
The Best 7 Storage Furniture Pieces
We also updated the old chandelier by painting it a rich indigo color and adding a large drum shade, stenciled the walls, painted & reupholstered our thrift store desk chairs, and added sentimental art. Here’s the hall bathroom when we finished (we remembered to white balance the camera this time, hence the brighter pic). First we removed the weird off-centered bar under the window, added some window trim for balance, and raised the shower curtain for some extra drama and height.
This room was a formal living room with a dining room behind those built-ins when we first saw this house, but we converted the formal living room into an entryway/dining room by adding a huge opening on the left wall that leads into the kitchen. And the back room that was once the dining room became our home office thanks to the addition of a big built-in desk. And I’m happy to report that both the bedroom and the living room are more comfortable than they used to be. Their temperatures were rarely similar to what was going on in the other four rooms when this house was on three separate systems, and now they’re all much more in sync. You might even call this house Justin Timberlake (I’m really sorry. I couldn’t resist that one). The icing on the cake is that towels actually dry on the hooks on the back of our bedroom door now.
Feels so sad to have Christmas without him, and our tree is covered with Burger ornaments too. If you’re one of those people who likes to “walk” through a space to get your bearings, you can also get a feel for the whole kitchen in this video. I LOVE how you can catch a glimpse out at the kitchen porch, and the ending makes me laugh. Then we added a large iron outdoor lantern, built a pergola (cargola?), and bought in some potted plants for more interest and architecture.
Then we painted the walls, hung art, framed out the mirror, DIYed a window shade, and added some accessories (more details on those projects here). Our total budget for this room’s upgrade was just $168. Last year we got a mini real tree for upstairs in the family room as well as putting up our skinny faker (that’s what I affectionately call this tree right here) in the bedroom. But this year we had a more central spot for our main tree… right in the nook our new pantry created in the kitchen, which can be enjoyed a ton of the time. So I think it eliminated our urge to add a secondary little tree upstairs (you can see all the photos of how we decorated the house last year in this post).
I love this angle with the pink painting and the brass sconce and Teil’s book mixed with these trees. I’m telling you, they’re small and cute but they make me so happy. They had pink glass and mercury glass ones in their dollar spot, which is now always $3 or $5 (the “dollar spot” name is wrong and needs to be updated…). We’re huge fans of the whole collected-over-time mishmash of sentimental and meaningful and handmade-by-the-kids ornaments. Gone are the days of “theme trees” or anything that’s coordinated and matching – we all jam ornaments on basically every branch and admire the outcome every time. I know it’s not for everyone, but it sure makes us happy.
The entire makeover came in at just $930 (including sealants, paint, two armoires, a desk, a bookcase, and a slew of accessories). We also raised the shower curtain, removed the linen closet door, turned a night table into a vanity, and DIYed our own vintage-inspired art. Lovable Livable Home also includes photos and info about our living room makeover, along with a few other spaces like our guest room, our garage, our hall bathroom, and our half bathroom (which might be our favorite update of all). And here’s the quirky little yellow guest bathroom that was attached to the guest bedroom. We decided to work with the vintage tile since it was in great shape and actually charmed us after living with it for a while, but to lose the dated and dingy look.
